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Egypt’s transition: ‘You people speak of democracy as if it is just a ballot box’

Egyptian supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood read the Qur'an outside Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque on July 10, before breaking the fast on the first day of Islam's holy month of Ramadan. Photo: MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images

NASR CITY, Cairo — The mostly bearded fellows armed with clubs baking in the midday Ramadan sun Wednesday on the outer perimeter of the square where the Muslim Brotherhood has been camped for several weeks, cheerfully bid me “welcome” moments after learning that an arrest warrant for their supreme spiritual leader, Mohammed Badie, had been issued by the interim government installed after last week’s coup.

It was a reminder that no matter what their political or religious beliefs and no matter how dire, chaotic, miserable or uncertain their situation, Arabs may be the world’s most congenial hosts.

Their “welcome,” which is often the only word that Arabs know in English, is a phenomenon that I have experienced before in Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza. I have heard the word dozens of times every day, every time I have been here to chart Egypt’s rollercoaster 30-month transition to a version of democracy that no Canadians would regard as such. Whether they are Islamists in Nasr City’s Raba Square, liberal secularists of various political persuasions in Tahrir Square or the young conscripts who were ordered to back them, almost everyone appears to be genuinely happy to see foreigners.

That is not to say that inter-acting with Cairenes has always been easy. Relations have quickly become strained when there have been different interpretations of murky events such as the bloodbath that took place early Monday morning in Nasr City — which, to the best of my knowledge, not one of the hundreds of foreign journalists here actually witnessed from start to finish.

Some of the stories being told by both sides about that tragedy, which left more than 50 civilians and as many as three soldiers and police dead, have clearly been exaggerated. Enraged Brotherhood followers have harangued me with different accounts of what happened that morning. I also have been hounded by secular liberals, including some well-groomed matrons enjoying afternoon tea earlier this week, who had no clue about what had happened in Nasr City, but confidently told me that despite the lopsided body count, the Brotherhood was entirely to blame.

New video uploaded to YouTube that was recorded before dawn Monday from an apartment looking down on the battle ground shows the military firing tear gas at Islamists during morning prayers. After that both sides fired live rounds at each other although who fired first was impossible to figure out.

In what may end up being a public relations problem for the armed forces, the video which was reported on by the New York Times Wednesday, followed a gunfight in which it appeared as if the vast majority of the shooting was done by soldiers and police.

Under a headline which said, “damning evidence points to security forces’ failures,” Amnesty International said Wednesday it believed that “security forces (had) used excessive force.”

Despite Monday’s carnage, there is no doubting the sincerity and the peaceful intentions of the vast majority of the millions of Egyptians who have protested in Cairo since the beginning of 2011. I have often marvelled at how the crowds never appear to get bored milling around again and again in the same grimy public places shouting the same slogans about revolution and democracy, although it must be noted here that the names of those whom they love and hate have often changed.

One of the reasons being part of this street theatre may have proven to be so enduringly popular is that there is little else to do these days in Cairo. Because the wretched, tourism-dependent economy has been paralyzed by the demonstrations, the only affordable entertainment has been to go out and protest some more.

The competing throngs long ago became a handy backdrop for foreign television reporters who have fed off their images. The only Egyptians who may have benefited from the tumult have been the hawkers that manage to circulate in the middle of even the most packed protests. One of the more enterprising entrepreneurs was one I saw Wednesday who was doing a great trade selling staves, metal pipes and cudgels to those who wanted to fight. The other night I saw a motorcycle delivery man from McDonalds who dropped off a load of burgers and fries at the exact spot in Tahrir Square that had been requested.

Egyptians, and the foreigners in their midst, have mostly got along. However, without a doubt, the greatest disconnect has arisen whenever the word “democracy” is mentioned.

The Brotherhood believes it was cheated of democracy because its political leader, Mohammed Morsi, who narrowly won elections only 54 weeks ago, was overthrown just one-quarter of the way through his presidency. But during his short time in power Morsi — who is now under arrest, although not yet charged with any crime — acted as if he had been elected to rule over a one-party state. He barely considered the opinions of anyone except those of his Islamist backers and was trying to stack the courts in his favour.

The opposition, which demanded that the military come to its aid largely because of economic chaos, has been no better. In justifying the use of soldiers, backed by attack helicopters, warplanes and armoured vehicles including tanks, to oust Morsi, a young, Western-educated woman with a master’s degree in journalism told me: “You people speak of democracy as if it is just a ballot box.”

Matthew Fisher is Postmedia's international affairs columnist and Canada's longest serving foreign correspondent. He has lived and worked abroad for 31 years in Europe, the Middle East, the Far East and... read more, more recently, Afghanistan. His assignments have taken him to 162 countries, all U.S. states, Canadian provinces and territories, above the North Pole and to an iceberg over the Magnetic North Pole. During his travels he has been an eyewitness to 19 wars and conflicts. The personal highlight of his career as a roaming correspondent was when he attended Nelson Mandela's inauguration in Pretoria.View author's profile